Handel: Coronation Anthems

NDR Chor,
FestspielOrchester
Göttingen, Laurence
Cummings (d)

AccentACC26405

Could there be any music more indelibly
marked as British as Handel’s Coronation
Anthems? And yet here we have a live
recording of the four anthems by a
German radio choir and an international
orchestra, taken from one of Germany’s
oldest and leading Handel festivals. (See
page 42 for a review of some of this year’s
events.) That said, at the helm is our very
own Laurence Cummings, festival director
and one of the most exciting Handelian
experts around – and lest anyone be put
offby the thought of non-native speakers
performing this music, let me say that the
singing is superb and with only the most
fleeting hints of an accent. Their diction is
unfailingly clear, and combined with the
energy and drive of the FestspielOrchester
Göttingen, marshalled by Cummings, they
give uplifting, thrilling performances.

The disc is rounded off by tracks from
a concert in the 2012 festival, given by
the same forces. The work in question is
the oratorio Esther, in its second version
of 1732. Yet what do we hear? Handel,
the master musical recycler and
reworker, crafted the chorus ‘God is our
hope’ from the outer movements of
‘Zadok’ – he knew a good thing when he
heard it, and perhaps already recognised
how much of a hit the earlier work had
been.